HOW TO: resize and copyright images

June 18, 2020

As you may or may not be aware, I have started reposting some old content of mine. Either that, or I will delete. Chances are, reposting is the way I will go.

Hope you enjoy this repost, and possibly, maybe, learn something or are inspired.

originally posted Oct. 5, 2019

How to resize and copyright an image in Photoshop.

I wasn’t going to do this yet, but I figured…why not? Go ahead and get it off my chest!

So, here it goes..

First off, I have to tell you that just because your image is copyrighted in Photoshop, doesn’t mean that it won’t get stolen or copied from you. It’s just a little peace of mind. The more you can do to prove that the image is yours, the better. And of course, I’m working with an old version of Photoshop, but things shouldn’t have changed so much that this won’t help you.

If you have photoshop or lightroom, this will be of great value to you. I don’t do videos! I know it would be much easier, but it is what it is.

Adjusting image size…

First, click on FILE and then click on OPEN to bring a photo into photoshop.

I like to keep my photos for the blog around 1Megabyte. To do this, click on the IMAGE button, you’ll see the drop down page…move the cursor over RESIZE and then click on IMAGE SIZE. I don’t mess with CANVAS SIZE or SCALE, but you can.

Here you can adjust the pixels. For this photo, I will adjust the width to about 1456 pixels. This will also adjust the height pixels and the document size and width. As you can see in the photo below, the pixel dimensions is 51.3M, which is way to big! I’m not sure how this -PIXEL DIMENSIONS – relates to the saved as size…but this number does change when you change the width/height. (You can change PIXELS to inches and other measurements, I never do. Click on the PIXELS box and you can see your options.) Click in the box next to WIDTH. I usually click on/in the box to get the highlight off then move the cursor over so I can delete the “3” and change it to “1”. I usually do this, and adjust as I need to.

72 Resolution is what you want if dealing with the internet. I’m not sure why…I can’t remember the reasoning behind this. This is what everyone recommends. And i do mean everyone!

Next is to SAVE AS. I hardly ever replace the original image. You might have to go back and forth from ADJUST IMAGE SIZE to SAVE AS a few times to get it the right size, but it’s worth it as it will save you a LOT of space.

Click on SAVE AS in the FILE drop down box. You will be given an option to name your image. Do so, also make sure the image is Jpeg. (We’ll go over this later.) The next box to come up is JPEG OPTIONS. Here you can adjust the quality by moving the slide bar up and down from small file to large file. When sliding the bar, the MAXIMUM box and the number under the Preview box will change. Of course, the larger the file, the better the quality. That’s why, when in Photoshop, you adjust the image size there, instead of when you’re saving. The lowest I save as is 11 quality. If the image is still too big, save it and go back to adjust image size. Then try again.

I always keep the FORMAT OPTIONS on Baseline (“Standard”). Baseline Optimized and Progressive make the file bigger.

As you can see, the image size is 1.9M, which is fine for the blog.

Copyrighting an image.

After you’ve finished working on a photo, copyright it. To get (c)YOURNAMEDATE on your photo, click on the T on the left side of the screen. This will allow you to write directly on the image. Click on the image anywhere you want and start writing.

If you hold the button down, some options will come up. I rarely ever mess with this, except to get my text to go vertical instead of horizontal.

When you’re done typing, a red X and a green check mark will appear at the top of the screen, near the middle. Click on the green check mark, otherwise you won’t be able to move forward.

If it’s not the right color, you can change it. Near the top of the screen you will see a box between AUTO and STYLE. Click on it and a color pallet will drop down. You may have to highlight your text to be able to change it.

To change the style, click on the box near the top left of the screen.

To move the text, click on the Arrow with the direction symbol, near the top, left hand side of the screen. This will allow you to move the text around the image as well as resize it. (In the image above, it’s next to “carrollcreek12.jpeg) This will allow you to move the words and make it bigger or smaller. Move the cursor over the text box and left click/hold to move it. To resize it, move the cursor over one of the boxes and left click/hold and drag it.

Next, you want to flatten the image (this will change it back to a jpeg image). Click on the LAYER button, between ENHANCE and SELECT. At the very bottom of the drop down box is the FLATTEN IMAGE button. Click on it.

Next, click on FILE and go to File Info…

Another window will pop up. I typically only deal with Document Title, Author, and Copyright Status.

Type in the Document title, Author and click on Copyright Status, then click on Copyrighted. Click ok.

After you have copyrighted your image (or even saved your image) the title will show up above your image. If it’s copyrighted, the copyright symbol will appear before the image name.

Then you go back to FILE and click on SAVE AS and go through that whole process.

Just some personal thoughts…

• when I work on an image in photoshop, I OPEN the file. I don’t import.
• since I do have images for sale on Picfair, Shutterstock and Pixels and also available at Pinterest, I save at least two copies of every image I work on. One has been copyrighted (for my blog), one is not (picfair, shutterstock, pixels or pinterest, depending). The image for the blog is considerably smaller than the image for Picfair. It can get very confusing!! Once I/you get into a habit or routine of doing things, it’s not so hard. It comes naturally.

I hope that this has helped you, or will help you at some point. I’m not going to add PICFAIR or PINTEREST to this post. I’ll leave that for later.

Feel free to print, save, share… and comment!

Take care and have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by!!